Anatomy of Twitter Trending Topics Manipulation

On our last post, #diasemglobo and how big media was able to manipulate Twitter Trending Topics? , we were really intrigued about Twitter Trending Topics manipulation by big media. Yesterday, after performing what we call a "stress test" we could finally have some insight on how someone is managing to do that. This is a screen capture of what happened when #diasemglobo was trending worldwide:

Somehow, they are being able to mess with Trending Topics search. After this error happens (No results for #diasemglobo), people can't follow the topic anymore. It then collapses. Big media is being able to pick whatever topic interests them the most and push it to the top. Yesterday we performed a simple experiment, tainting the topic "Adeus Cristiano Ronaldo" - Goodbye Cristiano Ronaldo with our movement's message. After some minutes, guess what?

Same error. The Trending Topic, that was trending for the whole afternoon, dissapeared as well. They then are able to coordinate introducing other Topics that were waiting to be boosted, such as "Fátima Bernardes", "Tony Ramos", "Ana Maria Braga" and "Mariana Ximenes". All celebrities from the media conglomerate. Last week, even the death of one of these celebrities was announced "Lima Duarte morreu", in a distasteful effort to shut us up.


We are really upset and saddened that this kind of manipulation is happening on Twitter right now. We understand Twitter as the chance of individual citizens to share with the world their ideas and concerns. From the point big media can interfere on Twitter Trending Topics, we loose this opportunity. That is just not fair.


Help us free twitter from big media manipulation.


02.07.2010 | #umdiasemglobo | #People united against manipulation.


Kind regards,
@diasemglobo